Christmas shopping and/for coming trip back home...

Have you started your Christmas shopping yet? I managed to start mine a couple of weeks ago during the weekends and a couple of week nights this week where the shopping centres are finally starting to open late! Chadstone especially is opened from 9am to 10am this Monday to Wednesday and till 12 midnight on Thursday and Friday! They even have free shuttle buses to shuffle shoppers from the nearby tafe! Gosh you should see the crowds at shopping centres when it's near Christmas, it's almost impossible to find a car-park!

Lucky I have already managed to tick off most of the names on my pressie list except a couple more to finish this weekend. And since I have to send my car in for service, we'll be there early and can always leave the car parked at the Kmart parking slot after the service, so it kinda saves us from having to find one. :p

Oh and Tubby and I kinda need to do shopping for our mums as well. I think my mum's got a much longer list than his! lol! Mum's spoilt anyway, she asked for an iPod Nano for Christmas and so she's getting a purple one. :D With that, she's also got quite a few other things that I bought for her over the year as well!

And shucks, this time round during our trip back to Singapore / Malaysia, we also have to attend a few weddings! It's that time of the year isn't it? Everyone seems to be getting hitched! And yeah it's kinda that kind of "age" too I guess! :p

Anyway for my sec school best friend's wedding, I bought a black Audrey Hepburn like dress. Decision was made after the other two besties decided they were going in black as well. :P I guess people aren't so superstitious about black colour these days. I can't believed that it was bought in a jiffy during my 1-hour lunch break last week. I wasn't particularly looking for one that day and just happened to come across it. It's similar to the one pictured except that mine has thinner shoulder straps and is a little shorter.

Then I'll have to get one especially for my brother's wedding as well! Yes, my late thirty-something year old brother (ssshhhh!) has finally tied the knot! He and my sis-in-law solemnized on 6 Dec. How coincidental as that is also the anniversary date for Tubby and I. Anyway their wedding dinner is on the 26th of Dec and so they say when you're out looking for something, somehow you just can't find it! I was out the last few times, tried on countless dresses and I couldn't find one that I like or suited me. :( I guess trying to stay away from black is kinda difficult, but let's hope I get better luck this weekend.

Then there's the wedding of our tennis coach and his wife as well which falls on the 3rd of Jan. We are still debating if we are attending because that's pretty close to the dates that we're going up to KL! Yes, planning a trip up north to visit my chabohs and also dear cousins and my new little "grand nephew"... Excited yet upset about the upcoming trip back, cause we'll be missing Jasper oh so much...

My new toy(gadget) - the Apple iPhone 3GS

Lately, it seems to be all about consoles, gadgets and stuff. LOL :p And the most recent one I've got is the iPhone 3GS in 16GB. When I was offered to renew my contract in March this year, the staff from Optus was asking me, "Are you sure you don't want the iPhone?" Being the super stubborn and "iPhone Hater" at that time, I thought the iPhone was overrated and so chose to go with the LG Renoir instead. I played around with the phone at the Apple store before and didn't really like how the touch screen function and it seemed hard to sms.

But then Tubby got his a couple of months back sometime after his birthday and every now and then I played with it and thought it had some really cool applications and I like how you can access the Internet and browse normal websites anywhere you want. As you know phones are usually restricted to specially designed mobile websites and cannot access most full websites properly, so having Safari was a real plus for me. :p The finger zoom in and out was also pretty innovative.

Since then, I've been jokingly telling Tubby and Bro Dan that, "I want the iPhone!" And so one normal Sunday when we were shopping in Southland, Tubby suddenly asked me if I wanted to go check out with Optus and see what they can suggest about getting the iPhone. Because I just renewed my new plan in March and had another 16 months to go (for a freakin long 24-month contract), I couldn't really do much because terminating it would cost a lot of money. So we had a bright idea, sign a new cheap plan to get the iPhone and upgrade my current plan to the iPhone plan so I can keep my current number. And that's what I just did... :D So you could really say that I have to "suck it up now..." hehe... :P

There's so many different type of covers and plastic cases on ebay and a whole lot to choose from! Boy do I have a hard time browsing! I just bought one diamante pink one from ebay - all thanks to xiaxue who started the glitter and diamonds stickers on laptops and gadgets. :P

I've been loving my iPhone since I got it and can understand now why it's the most popular phone in the world for now (for now because I heard the new google phone might be the next "In-thing"). But hey no, I'll be staying loyal to my iPhone for a long time. It's like having the computer and portable game console at your finger tips with the functionality of being able to play games, surf the web, check emails and download useful and sometimes "not-so-useful" applications. :D Then you have your iPod and iTunes and even watching videos is easy on YouTube. The messaging facility is also interesting, every sms is like a conversation u have between the person, the message appears in a bubble.

There are just so many different types of applications built for the iPhone. It even acts as a torchlight if you're in the dark! Probably, the only downside is that the battery runs like water and you'll have to charge everyday. But that doesn't bother me as I got the car charger and everyday I have to plug it to iTunes to sync with my new applications and stuff. Overall the Pros definitely outweigh that one Con. So if you're so not into one, you don't know what you're missing out. ;)

Getting our Playstation 3 and Show a bit of love by supporting the RSPCA

I haven't got much to blog about since life has been pretty mundane lately. A week in the life of Mel just revolves around work, tennis/gym, sleep, work and tennis/gym. :S Not to say that I have lost much weight what with the exercise and stuff; the constant temptations of sweet desserts and fast food have been too overpowering. Anyway I hope everyone likes this new change of blog template. I just had the sudden urge to change the template today and went Google-ing for one. Found this one by a lady called Candy who designs blog templates for free. Her link is right at the bottom of the page. I used to create my own templates, but now with the XML versions and stuff, it has become too time-consuming and I'm too lazy. :p

Anyway on to some shopping done lately. Now I was getting pretty bored with my PSP (PlayStation Portable) for awhile since there weren't many new good games coming out. And in terms of hand-held, the DSi wins for me because of the touch screen features, new camera and of course (sssshhhh!) the free games I can download and play on the R4 revolution. :p

And also, although we just bought the xbox 360 in January this year, we (or at least I) haven't been playing much on it as well because there weren't many games of interest and as you'd know one of my favourite pass times is to sing ktv and they only have the LIPS game so far and that didn't satisfy my singing sensation. :D

And so we bundled up our xbox 360 with the controllers, games, wireless mics, Scene-It game and 4 controllers, external hard disc, my PSP, games and a couple of the DS games I had, and brought them all to EB Games for a trade-in a couple of weeks ago . For 13 games, 2 consoles, 2 controllers and all the other bits and pieces, they gave trade-value of $442 in store credit. That's pretty alright I guess for a trade-in although I know those would have sold more on ebay - but it wasn't really worth the hassle. And so we (or Tubbs actually) happily paid extra the $54 for our new PS3 which came with the Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 Game. The package deal was $496 for the 120Gb one.

I've got to say we've been enjoying our new toy. :D Blu-Ray movies are just awesome! They are so precise and clear and now I'm wishing we've got a bigger full HD TV. We haven't bought many games yet as Tubbs is hooked on his FIFA 10 and other times we're flying dragons with Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon. And as usual even that we can scream at each other! LOL. Surfing Internet on the TV with the PS3 is also a different experience! Boy I can't wait to get a proper web cam and I can probably chat to my mum via the TV as well! How cool is that!

Well on to the next thing, as you know Christmas is coming and during this period, lots of people like to buy dogs / cats and give to give them off as presents. Pets are for life and should not be given as gifts as all unless the it's really appropriate and the person receiving it will take care and love them for the rest of their lives.

You can help the RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) by donating or buying stuff from their online shop in which the proceeds go towards helping the shelter and catering for the animals awaiting adoption.

I recently bought a pair of RSPCA Car Shades and the Million Paws Walk ladies top from them as they were on sale! Was contemplating whether or not to buy Jasper another toy but didn't in the end because he already has too many! There have lots of stuff not only for pets, but also household items, books, calendars, stationary and more!

So show your support to help out the animals, visit the RSPCA web shop and start shopping! You can even get christmas presents there.

APISC Futsal Indoor Soccer Premiership finals

This post is all about Tubby with his amazing and proud moments at the APISC Futsal Indoor Soccer Premiership finals last Wednesday. He plays with Wangwei's co-workers in a team called FLUOR and I was there to watch their exciting semi-finals and finals match. Here are some shots of the boys in action during the finals on Wed 14 Oct.

Tubby getting all ready in case the ball comes!

Yes I'm gonna try and get the ball past you!

Watch it Defenders!!! Incoming!!!

Wangwei and his penalty shot - I'm not telling u if he got it in. :P

Tubby and wangwei with their winning trophy. Tubby also won "Player of the Match" for saving 3 penalty shots! :)

Family photo with our proud "daddy" at home.

Close-up of the trophies

More additions to Tubby's Soccer and our badminton Awards / Trophies. Now we really need some from Tennis.

Here are some videos from the night and the saving of 2/3 penalty shots from Tubby:

Some game play during the match

Saving Penalty 1/3

Saving Penalty 2/3

Relationship update and trip to Melbourne Musuem: Pompeii Exhibition and Royal Melbourne Show

My relationship status on face book recently changed from "In a relationship" to "It's complicated" and close friends know why that happened. Let's just say I believe that in every relationship, things need to keep moving forward and on to the next step as years go by and maybe I'm a bit impatient for that to happen. But hey, 5 years isn't a short time and I guess there's quite a bit of the peer pressure in it as well.

Apart from that, our relationship has been going on pretty well. I doubt I can find anyone else who can put up with my "shit" :p and also share so many same interests as me at the same time. It just that sometimes, waiting for something to happen can really strain the mood. Not only that, we haven't really got pass the controlling parents. But I guess if two people really love each other, they've got to try and make it work somehow.

Anyway, on to some happier stuff...

Tubbs and I went to Melbourne Museum for the Pompeii Exhibition. And with that we also got free entry into the other Museum Exhibits:
The Pompeii Exhibition was very informational and we really learn the in-depth story of how people lived and entertained themselves at that time, the cooking utensils, houses, jewellery, Gods that they worshipped, Gladiator fights and stuff, up until the time when Mt. Vesuvius erupted and cover the whole town and also current excavation updates.

The only down side was that day was extremely crowded and we kinda chose the late session (by mistake) which pretty much left us with hardly any other time to finish viewing the other exhibits. There was "A walk with Dinosaurs", "Marine Life", "Mind and Body" and "The Melbourne Story". The next time we go for another event, I certainly want to make it a whole day thing and not go at 2'o clock in the afternoon. :p

Here's the full photo album: A Day in Pompeii & Other Exhibits

Just over the weekend, we went to the Royal Melbourne Show with my cousins Kayla and Yu Ping and her friends. My emergency memberlink card got me some discount on tickets, so it kinda compensate a little for the huge amount spent there. :S
The forecast for the day was really terrible weather with showers and hail. We had to duck in and out of shelter every now and then but we tried not to let that spoil out moods. Entry was about $21 for Adult and $14 for Concession. Games and rides were extra and the games especially were pretty expensive, kinda like $5 and $10 each! The cousins and friends weren't interested in any rides, so we just sat the Ferris Wheel to get a nice view of the whole show.

I think we spent the most on games because those huge soft toys were all so tempting and seemed to be "calling" out to you! Arggh! :p. We played the usual lie ball toss, the shooting water at target game, some silly pull the string game and a make 21 game. The lucky Yu Ping won a big white bear while we got Kayla Scooby-Doo and Tigger. Haha, and Tubby bought Stewie and Baby Tazzy Devil for me from one of the stalls. Nothing much interesting about the showbags as they were mostly for kids and either that or it was chocolates and sweets.

Here's the full photo album: Royal Melbourne Show 2009

Mornington Peninsular for Tubby's Birthday and James's house-warming

Tubby, Jasper and I went away last month for his birthday celebration. It was a pretty relaxing trip - nice but it all ended too fast. The mini cottage we stayed was called "The Sand Piper" - interestingly had no sand or whatsoever within. But it was cosy and they also gave us a free welcome hamper with a bottle of wine, jam, yogurt, fruits, bread and stuff enough to feed our nibbling habits for the 3 days there.

Day 1: We arrived there Sunday around 2pm and went up to Arthur's Seat. There, you could get the most wonderful view of Port Phillip bay. Nothing else much except the nice view - there used to be a ski lift there but is now closed due to safety issues. More views of the bay when we dropped at some garden which I can't remember what it's called. All I know was that it had 2 sculptures which were supposedly scalped by a popular artist which we don't know who. :p Next we dropped by the enchanted mazes, but they weren't open and so we only took some photos from the veranda.

Day 2: This whole day was supposed to be relaxing. But the relaxing part only started in the afternoon. :p In the morning, we headed to Gunnamatta Trail rides for a nice 2 hour horse ride from the bushes to St. Andrew's beach. We have rode a few times before but a ride on the beach was a first. And although our ass and thighs were sore like anything after that, it was an experience well worth it. After that we headed to Peninsula hot springs for our Lavender milk mineral bath. Tubby chose the private baths instead of the outside ones and we had a soothing 45 min massage after that. Dinner was steak and vegetables made by Chef Yong. ;)

Day 3: Nothing much was planned for this day. We just played it by ear, went to Cape Schanck where the light house was only to be turned away by the expensive $10 for wanting to enter it! What a rip off! Had to even pay $4 for parking in the carpark! :S And lastly of course how coule we miss the colourful bath houses along Mill's Beach. Jasper had good fun running along the beach there. After that we headed to a cafe in Chelsea for lunch before heading back home. :)

View our Mornington Peninsula Trip: full album here...

As most of you know, Tennis has been like part of Tubby's and my life since 3 years ago. From the lessons and social comps, we got to meet new friends who later became our tennis comp team mates as well. And so James invited us to his house for his house-warming. So embarrasing we didn't know it was his birthday and didn't get him anything.
Top Left - L-R: Weiwei, Sam (our tennis coach from Singapore), James and Jame's friend. Top Right Pic: Jame's housemate bringing out his birthday cake. Bottom Left: Yin-Pin, me and Penny (our other Summer Tennis Comps team mates). Bottom Right: James and Tubby!

Sorry I know I have been rather lazy updating my blog regularly. Am planning to take some time during the Melbourne Cup long weekend to get a whole new overhaul for my blog including new templates and stuff and hopefully the updates will be more frequent then! Till then, enjoy the coming Spring all!

World's Strictest Parents - a TV Show I recommend!

If you're looking for something interesting to watch, you've GOT to check this out:

World's Strictest Parents

It's a TV show about Aussie's most rebellious and uncontrollable kids who are sent overseas to live with very strict parents for a week to try and change their bad behaviour. These strict parents try to make sure they do what they are told - or at least they try their very best to "force" the kids to follow their rules - sometimes in the most funniest ways!

And if you haven't guessed it, why am I not surprised Singapore was one of the countries where the aussie kids were sent to live with and boy you've got to watch the episode - I literally burst out laughing! "You must greet us Aunty Ean and Uncle Meng". Yes that's very respect most of us Asians have to do - but just the way they put it to the aussie kids, it was hilarious!

Most of these rebellious kids are school drop-outs, who drink, smoke and party most of the time and some of them we have seen have totally no respect for their own parents at all. It makes us kinda feel that at least us Asian kids still do have a certain level of respect and fear we have of our parents even though we may be stubborn sometimes. Maybe it's the culture that alot of Aussie are not strict enough with their kids. But yeah it's a total shock when these naughty kids start to realise how wonderful their own parents are after they are "dumped" into a World of Rules - it may be a "hard on them" but it's a good lesson learnt in a different way.

Vote for Jasper to be the new face of Advocate Parasite Protection!

Hi people, Advocate, Australia's No.1 Parasite and Flea protection is looking for a dog and cat to be the new face of their advertising campaign. So please help to vote for Jasper and make him the new face of Advocate!

If we get anything we'll share it with everyone of you who clicked to vote! :) Go visit Jasper's page and click on the blue button to vote for him. Also click on Jasper's pictures tab and click on the "thumbs up" icon to vote for his photos. Every vote on every picture counts, so please try and vote for all.

If you join as a member of the site, you can just easily vote but if you're a visitor, you'll need to enter the scrambled letters in the pop-up window and hit enter to vote. A bit of a hassle I know, so do it when you're free. Thank you!

Click here to vote for Jasper!

For Jasper MEMBER OF THE Dog PARTY Click here to vote for Jasper at VoteMyPet.com.au

xoxo, Jasper (with lots of hugs and licks!)

Transformers 2: Revenge of The Fallen Movie IMAX Meet and Midnight TF Toy Hunt

I can't believe it's more than a month after the Gold Coast trip, I'm now more ever in need of another holiday! (*_*) Work is pretty boring at the moment and everyone seems to be in a "can't be bothered" mood. Anyway a whole big group of us went to watch Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen last Saturday! Boy there was like over 20 of us from Ozformers and together with some of us who brought out other halfs. :) We went to IMAX theatre in Melbourne museum - super extra large screen around 7 stories high or so they say...

ROTF Movie promotional 3D poster next to the doors entering the theatre.

Group shot of all the Ozformers people, some missing and some hiding. :p Oh and the cute little girl is one of the guy's daughter. That's right! We have married Transformers fans and some have kids as well. :p

After the movie, Goro one of the members had some items for sale. It was so funny we followed him to his car which was parked at the roadside. He took out his "toy box" and everyone started digging in to see what goodie he had for sale. Some already knew what we were getting as he posted on the forum.

Overall, I still like the movie - of course being the obvious reason that it IS Transformers. The only downside was that there was so much fighting going on at the same time in some scenes that you just can't tell who's fighting who! And they also seem to be "promoting" a lot of the U.S Army and Navy (which I'm not surprised). Some robots were also redundant as they appeared a mere 3 minutes and was then killed. :S So much for being a "guest star".

Last week we also went for some super crazy toy hunt! Yes Australia has this super crazy toy sales that start at 12 midnight during the July School holidays. Parents can lay by stuff till Christmas and slowly pay it off. How cool is that?! Anyway not surprisingly, of course we were there for Transformers! We all met at Jay's place and then took off first to Kmart Campbellfield.

Yup - us checking out the Transformers aisle. They had two TF aisle. This is the main one while there was another one up front section with all the new Transformers 2 movie stuff. I think we shuttled around and stayed for almost an hour and half.

Hehe, everyone have picked up what they wanted. Some of the boys got some Lego and toy guns thingy as well. But of course it was mainly Transformers. We stood around this area for a fair bit waiting for 12 midnight as the sale prices weren't scanning up yet. People and staff who walked by were asking us what we were waiting for, boy it was really funny!

Yup, we're all still waiting. And as the wait got longer, one came back with a electronic talking Pooh bear - it was so tempting that I wanted one too! But I controlled and put it back. A couple of the boys bought some ice-creams and we were eating them right in front there.

The next stop was Big W in Broadmeadows! Gosh they had the latest waves of Transformers toys there and you should have seen the amount of Transformers and Legos we piled into the trolley! it was mayhem and excitement when we got there. Parents and some kids were lining up at 1.30am+ in the morning around the mall waiting to lay by the toys!

After that around 2.30am-ish we headed for a 24 hour McDonalds to sit down have some late night snack and chatted - about Transformers of course. :p. All in all, I think I got home around 4am. :s Boy was I super shacked the next day...

Gold Coast trip and goodbye to Ralphy...

Okay, finally updates on the Gold Coast trip a couple of weeks ago! Oh man, :( I can't believe 2 weeks have passed already since the trip. It felt like just yesterday! As always, holidays are never long enough! Anyway get ready for visual overload! I took about close to 400 photos and videos - not bad already, considering I thought I'll take more... hehe... Well I just picked out some of my favourites and the rest are on facebook if you're interested:

Hooters Restaurant - where you get good food and sexy waitresses to entertain you!

One of the dishes ordered by Tubby: Hooter's special steak burger with curly fries.

Sexy waitresses putting on their hourly act - which is chair top dancing

A group shot with Joewiz and Len with the hot waitresses!

The stairs leading up to Hard Rock cafe restaurant and the shop was just opposite us! Of course I had to buy some stuff! :p

Wax Museum: Len me and Ghandi! Tubby said he was a lucky bugger. :p

Wax Musuem: Ah my favourite play-writer: William Shakespeare

BBQ at the apartment pool, us greedy girls digging into the food!

Ladies by the poolside...

Outside Harbour town shopping centre! Shopping there was so good lar! So many great bargains at cheap prices! Cannot compare to Melbourne lor, so expensive...

Anyway to continue the rest of the photos: Gold Coast: Food, Shopping and Sight-seeing

Next is the 2 theme parks which we managed to visit in the 3 days. Due to the showers and thunderstorms, we didn't have time for Dream World.

The 3 chabohs with their rain coast posing! :p

Clever Sea Lion show! Boy he can dance and do lots of interesting tricks! Good trainers!

Loved the Dolphin show! They are so intelligent and cute and it just makes you wanna care about the environment more after the show to protect them.

Check out the heavy and horrible thunderstorm on the 1st day we went Sea World la. It was so bad the park closed half day. But lucky we got return tickets to go back on the friday.

Outside Movie World! Woohoo! The morning was actually cloudy and rainy. But as we were driving past to go down Brisbane then we saw the sun coming out and decided to head there instead.

The 3 chabohs taking the Batman ride! Super fun lar! Could hear Len screaming like nobody's business. Of course we screamed too, but not as loud as her hehe!

The Looney Toons theatre and of course Looney Tunes performance! Love Bugs Bunny!

Looloo and me with Bugs Bunny!

Ah Scooby-Doo Coaster! Super fun as well! You are brought up and then turned around and you thought you're gonna drop vertically down or something and you actually go down a curve back first!

Central Square where the parade starts and also the other shows presented.

Superman Roller Coaster, 0-100 in like 3 seconds. I still can't believed we were too chicken to take the ride. :(

Me and Len with the evert beautiful "Marilyn Monroe"...

Hollywood Stunt Drivers! Awesome show and hot mitsubishi lancers! heehee!

Scooby-doo bee doo where are you? :D

Batman and his Bat Mobile. The car is so cool in real life hor!

Me with my Bugs Bunny Grammy Award! heehee...

Second day at Sea World, nice sunny weather! Looloo and me with Big Bird!

Seasame Street Land I can't remember the actual name, it's as your can see, for the kiddies!

Hehe, find me find me! Classic shot hor! I was actually posing for the camera man!

Anyway rest of the theme park photos: Gold Coast: Sea World and Movie World

Okay that's the "gist" of it. On another note, Ralphy was sold over the weekend. To cut a long story shot, we finally realised we couldn't love any other dog as much as we loved Jasper and it just wasn't gonna be fair. And so Ralphy is now with a lovely old lady living in the rural area. No more new dogs for us for a long while unless it's Jasper's son I guess...